Residents awoke this morning to find a digger at Harts Farm digging trenches and have sent us photos and videos showing the work.

Little Bushey Community committee member, Andy Williams said: "They’re attempting to dig 88 x 30 metre trenches across all the fields to perform archaeological analysis of the soil and clay. The aim is to be finished by Friday, however they’ve already determined that much of the area is quagmire and this won’t happen."

The company digging the trenches were unaware that the top layer of soil across the fields is spoil from the M1 construction so shallow trenches will reveal little.

Planning consultants, Chroma, have already revealed to us that Hertsmere planners require further reports and that the application will probably go to the January planning committee rather than the December one.

Said Chair, Daren Nathan: "This is alarming as it shows just how serious Redrow are about demonstrating the suitability of the site for development."